By George I think they've got it !

We really kept fitness and fun alive this week with Ricky's brilliant cryptic treasure hunt style challenge. 10 cryptic clues all based around central , east and west worthing meant it was both challenging but manageable and accessible for walkers, runners (and tourists too - maybe Old John could point us in the direction of the tourist information centre ha ha - I'm taking cover! )

Scores on the doors Bob !

In reverse (and of course the most important order ) the results were pretty close

Sue & Ricky 65 Nick & Julia 68 Jay & Katharine 81 Paul & John 83 Belinda & John 90

The prize for being first is that the winners organise next weeks challenge :) Thank you Mr and Mrs R. We will be excited to see what you have in store for us!

Massive shout out to Barbara and Gill who completed the Phoenix P 24 challenge where they ran 1.1 mile every hour on the hour. Absolute legends and between the two of them they have inspired others in the group to do the same challenge ( with a twist ) in October ( gulp ! )

have a great week everyone and look out for community missions coming your way.

Julia

Nifty Fifty

So tonight I was very proud that it was my 50th task with GoodGym . A real milestone for me with much GG love and energy attached to each and every task in those 50 short weeks.

Many thanks to my small but amazing team this evening Paul , Tamsin , Nick , Belinda and Michelle with apologies from Gill (Too tired - please rest Gill ! ) and Anne ( Going to bed with a lemsip - Please take care of yourself)

Plants have all the anthers

After a relaxed warm up to just beyond parkrun turn around point, we arrived at Marine Gardens which is a community based green space with plenty of lawn, flowerbeds and grass ! We were met by trusty park ranger Keith who was very well prepared with tools , light and his usual good humour and love of our puns !

Grassing it up

The task tonight was to make some space and definition within overgrown flowerbeds full of established attractive grass whilst getting rid of the dead wood. It was a real spring tidy up full of optimism for lighter days and evenings on the not too distant horizon.

Mud Galore

By the end of the task we think we may have transferred most of the grass and mud to our trainers. However take a peak at the before and after photos to truly appreciate the extent of our makeover.

Fitness First

Hopefully my love and sharing of the benefits of burpees and other fitness moves such as squats ,sprints, strides ,star jumps ,high knees ,heel butts and sideways running challenged my small but trusty GG team tonight. I was really impressed with your efforts together with Belinda's epic efforts on BB ( Belinda's Bike ) Post run banter plus stretches followed with plenty of good luck vibes heading Pauls way for Brighton half marathon at the weekend.

Date for your diary

Monday 12th March is the first Birthday of GoodGym Worthing .It would really great if we could get as many as possible to the task at Breathing Spaces and then to the pub for celebrations afterwards. Please do share this epic event.

See you all next week

Julia

High spirits despite bitter wind and everything going wrong!

On the coldest evening to date and certainly not one for the faint hearted, we warmly welcomed two newbies to the group Ros and Nigel. We were also lucky enough to have with us Bob and Mark, from the local social media group, The Friendly Agenda who were keen to learn and share about what GoodGym Worthing is all about.

It was also great to see Tamsin , Michelle and Paul but sad that regulars Belinda ( puncture) Gill ( wimped out :) ) Roisin (working) Nick ( working ) Anne ( working I think ! ) and Duncan (AWOL) who couldn't quite make it tonight.

Tonight was one of those days that other trainers had warned me about but one that, in the 11 months since GG Worthing started, I had not experienced. The task cancelled at 3 pm due to sickness! Undeterred I managed to secure a last minute litter pick up at Haynes allotment so all was well..... Or so I thought!

Locked out but not knocked out

I had been assured that the gates would be left unlocked for us but imagine my sinking feeling when I arrived at the allotments to drop the equipment to find the gates well and truly still locked !

With the plan B kicked into touch I arrived to meet the team feeling rather disheartened but cheery faces and positive attitudes soon turned things around and we hatched a plan to head south to carry out a beach clean instead.

An ocean breeze puts your mind at ease

We headed out for a sociable warm up run to and around the pier getting to know Ros and Nigel and catching up with everyone's week. We collected the litter pickers from my car before heading down to the beach for some bracing conditions.

Litter by Litter

We were joined by Mark and Bob who also braced the wintry conditions! Whilst the team went both high on the beach and low as the tide was out I grabbed a few minutes on video sharing my knowledge, experience and love of GoodGym.

30 minutes later and feeling more than a little bit cold we merged the litter to reduce the plastic trail and headed directly into the breeze for a shortish run to the outdoor gym for a fitness session ( As requested by Tamsin)

Outdoor fitness session gets the arms and legs pumping

We did a few minute circuits on the out door equipment before doing some short sprint relays together with squats , jumping jacks and a crocodile thrown in too. No burpees tonight!

Tapering for the weekend

After a steady run back to base we finished with some stretches in the warmth of Splashpoint reception . This was combined with lots of good luck vibes heading to all the runners doing the Worthing Half Marathon this Sunday, Michelle, Paul, Duncan and Nigel . Let me know if theres anyone I have left out!

Watch this space and the website for details about where we are meeting next week . As the task is in Durrington its highly likely that we will meet at Worthing Leisure Centre but I will confirm.

Have a great week everyone !

Community gardens receive tlc from GoodGym Worthing

After a quick warm up along the prom on a summer evening in Sunny Worthing my small but elite team headed in the direction of Denton gardens where we had our usual cheery welcome from Park Ranger , Keith.

We gave a warm GG welcome to Lucy today who was visiting for the evening . Thank you for your hard work , banter and energy.Please accept a GG cheer from us all.

The team immediately got going on the task which included weeding and pruning a stretch of overgrown flower beds

Making a dent in Denton Gardens !

The weeds and puns came at such a pace that Ranger Keith was having to work hard to keep up with the piles of debris we created in our wake !

Queen of the bindweed

Gill is 3 weeks away from doing her Lunartic marathon and even struggling with a dodgy back after a hard week of training she turned out for GG . Not only did Gill do some fine pruning but she simply owned the killer bindweed tonight . A huge and loving GG cheer to you lovely lady.

Beth gets ready to 'Raf' it at Wimbledon !

After a day of watching her most favourite person on TV Beth turned out for a leg stretcher and good deed before she was heading up to SW19 to camp out in preparation for her next Rafael experience. As you will see from the photos,once again, we had to go looking for her in the depths of the flower bed !

Bon voyage Duncan !

Just a few short hours before Duncan heads off to NZ, he turned out for his last GG task for a month on holiday. There's a nice photo of Duncan so that we don't forget what he looks like !

A fun and friendly 5 k

After a tidy up and wave goodbye to Ranger Keith Nick led the run with long legged N R G weaving through the streets of Worthing encouraging a pacey sprint back along the seafront to GG base at Splashpoint Leisure Centre.

Gill and I also took a look at the wild flower progress at Beach House gardens that we did and we were delighted to see it looking so lush and pretty. Hopefully Splashpoint beds will not be far behind !

Stretches ,well dones , happy holidays and some quality press ups from Lucy finished off the evening nicely!

Thanks team . You always make my smile bigger on Monday evenings !

Helping Hands hew hospice hedges

In glorious sunny weather we faced our longest challenge yet with a run to our local hospice at St Barnabas to help them tidy up areas of the car park that have limited access in working hours.

We welcomed new runner Ed tonight ! Big GoodGym cheer to you . We hoped you enjoyed yourself!

After a balmy run along the seafront including a brief pause for a photo shoot we were warmly greeted at St Barnabas by Jenny and John with some more photos and an outline of our task tonight.

It was Cheerie'hoes and fine pruning as GoodGym worked their usual magic in double quick time .

A lush GoodGym cheer to Gill, Beth , Michelle, Duncan, and Nick and and an extra one for Ed too for all the energy and skill you showed tonight.

Not only did we prune we tidied too before it was

Hoe down at Highdown!

With a brisker run back including a sprint effort for the last 2.5 k , it was an epic 15 k in total! Wow wow wowzer !

Congratulations and big love to you all

Looking forward to seeing you all next week :)

On a scorching evening in Sunny Worthing we set off on a 5k run to revisit Kamelia kids day centre to spruce up the garden prior to their up and coming summer fair next week.

It was an absolute delight to welcome Roisin back with her cheery pre holiday GG vibes and energy. Big cheer to you lovely lady and happy holidays with your family! Also a huge GG cheer to Gill who turned out instead of a good book tonight . You defied your body saying no to you and for this we thankyou.

More cheers to follow.....

Taking the weeping out of the willow !

After a scorching 5k run along the prom we arrived at Kamelia Kids to be met by CEO Dottie.

Our task tonight was to prune a large willow tree to tidy and open up a secret forest that the children enjoy playing in.

Beth once again got well and truly submerged into her task. I always worry we may loose her every week but tonight she emerged to show off her football skills with a stray ball that had to make it into the tyre! GG cheers also coming your way.

Michelle was very productive with her pruning and puns and also got a few more scrapes to add to her collection tonight. GG cheer coming your way Michelle ! Getting trim and trimming up tonight

Many thanks to Nick for all his banter and also his height to reach those stray high branches at the top together with his running and fitness skills again tonight. GG cheer coming your way Mr G !

After 30 minutes of fine pruning we left the willow weeping and returned to base incorporating some fine lampost sprints together with some core work and stretches at the end.

So tonight I can finish with....

Exciting News ! Brighton GoodGym launches Tuesday 11th July

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/refurbing-a-preschool-garden-at-the-brighthelm-centre

A happy GG team put the Sunny into Sunny Worthing

On a beautiful seaside evening our small but select group of runners headed out west to the pier for a quick warm up followed by a local GG gardening task of tiding up Anchor gardens on behalf of the friends of Anchor Gardens .

It was great to have Belinda back after her 2 weeks away and sporting her running legs in shorts ! It was also nice that Southern trains enabled Beth to make it early to the start. A GG cheer to Gill in the middle of her Lunartic marathon training and Duncan for rushing from his meeting to join the group tonight and lets not forget Nick for leaving work early to help me !

We were met by Frieda from the friends of Anchor gardens and the Adur -Worthing ranger who kindly dropped down tools to us to assist with our task.As ever GG did their magic and did a grand tidy up with plenty of hoeing, weeding raking and pruning.

Nick led the run and fitness session along the beach finishing with some novel pic( Nick) table exercises and shuttle runs.

Stretches focused on glutes and hamstrings and we made a plan for meeting at Park Run on Saturday !

See you all then !

Yours in fitness

Julia

Lost in the sea of Mist eerie

4 brave runners deserve a huge GG cheer to turn out on a Bank holiday damp misty evening to carry out an exceptionally good deed in pea soup conditions along a not so sunny Worthing.

After a warm up run along the prom and down to the end of the pier we arrived at Denton gardens only to find that the 'mist eerie' thickened as alas no park ranger for or Denton Garden tidy up.

GoodGym motto - Always be prepared ! Advice to any GG run trainer would be to always have a spare task in your back pocket . Or, in my case boot of my car! Bags,gloves and litter pickers to the rescue and bank holiday beach clean it was !

Salute to GoodGym HERO of the day A MASSIVE cheer to Paul who was on location on his 3rd GG task OF THE DAY . 3 words Wow, Wow, Wowzer or alternatively Bristol, Croydon , Worthing! Paul . It was wonderful to meet you this evening. Please come back and see us soon.

Nick and Beth A cheesy GG cheer to my husband Nick for coming out to support me tonight and also Beth too after her commute and lack of food !

Sprints to the finish line !

After a 3k steady run we did breakwater sprints along the sand which were extremely challenging but in a strange way rewarding !